VA-Birders,
Friday morning I met Perri Borowiecki at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife
Refuge in Prince William County at about 7:15 AM. We walked a slow route out
Easy Road and then north on Deephole Point Road, and returning via Charlie
Road.
Quite nice was the Least Bittern that was singing nearly incessantly on
the north/east side of the culvert near the southern end of Easy Road.
Another Least Bittern was seen here flying away from us. We had hoped for a
short flight of the bittern that we were listening to, but it never popped up.
We also had two singing King Rails in this general area, though one was
only heard from the bench where the marsh drains into Belmont Bay along
Deephole Road.
We had five singing Northern Waterthrushes during our almost four-hour
visit. A Canada Warbler sang as well between the culvert and the bay along
Easy Road, and was relatively obliging as well by staying on an exposed perch
for a bit. We had fewer Prothonotaries (five) than I have seen reported
here, but I am not real sure of the spots in the refuge where they are
typically found.
The two birds that are just impressive in number at this refuge are Yellow
Warbler and Orchard Oriole. Neither surprising given the habitat, but to
try and get an accurate count of these things is difficult at best. I
tallied 35 and 28 respectively.
There wasn't much on the bays, and it was a bit foggy looking at the
water. Looking toward Belmont Bay at the spit that is almost even with the
intersection of Charlie Road, there were five Caspian Terns and three Forster's
Terns. There were also a couple of medium-sized terns that when they flew
looked quite gray-bellied, but distance and conditions were such that I
wasn't comfortable calling them Commons. Also on the bay was a Horned Grebe
in alternate plumage. An alternate plumaged Common Loon flew low over the
marsh in a northerly direction.
The eBird checklist is here:
_http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10628653_ ;
(http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S10628653)
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia
Culpeper County
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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